ASHRAE 170 | Ventilation of Health Care Facilities

In many large research universities, the healthcare enterprise is a significant revenue source -- sometimes up to half or more -- so we know that knowledgeable subject matter experts are present and financed well enough to conform to state-level healthcare facility regulations well enough to continue making money. Getting them pulled away from their regular job-assignments to contribute data and experience is a challenge for all accredited standards developers seeking balance in its technical committees.

The Roy G. Cullen Building at the University of Houston is believed to be the first university facility to install an air-conditioning system. (Click image for more information)

The American Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers (ASHRAE International) has released an addendum to its Standard 170 Ventilation of Health Care Facilities. The purpose of this standard is to define ventilation system design requirements that provide environmental control for comfort, asepsis, and odor in health care facilities. Click here for the ASHRAE Standing Standard Project Committee 170 landing page.

The proposed addendum revises requirements for filters in the body of the standard, removes Table 6.4, and adds filter efficiencies on a space-by-space basis. The redline can be found on ASHRAE’s Online Standards Action & Public Review Draft page. (Click here)

Comments are due June 10th.

Standards Michigan limits its interest in environmental air systems in healthcare facilities to university-affiliated medical research and clinical delivery enterprises. We acknowledge the American Society for Healthcare Engineering as an identifiable user-interest in this space.* For the most part environmental air system design, construction, operation and maintenance of the ventilation systems of university affiliated healthcare facilities is identical to healthcare facilities elsewhere; though the risk aggregations may be different for university-affiliated healthcare systems since those enterprises tend to have more research square-footage and receive high-risk patients seeking cutting-edge treatment.

We encourage front-line and middle level subject matter experts in a supervisory role in a university-affiliated healthcare system to participate in ASHRAE’s leading practice discovery processes; possibly at ASHRAE’s Annual Conference in Houston, June 23-27th.

All ASHRAE consensus documents — many of them evolving in 30 to 90 day intervals under ANSI’s continuous maintenance process — are on the standing agenda of our regular Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern Time, Open Door teleconference. We have one today. Anyone is welcomed to join it with the login information below:

You can also dial in using your phone. United States : +1 (408) 650-3123 Access Code: 718-914-669

Issue: [13-56], [15-83] and [16-144]

Category: Healthcare Facilities, Mechanical

Colleagues: Larry Spielvogel, Richard Robben

* By listing its corporate sponsors ASHE acknowledges financial sponsorship of user-interest competitor stakeholders identified in ANSI Essential Requirements: Due process requirements for American National Standards (Section 2.3 Balance). The dominance of stakeholders such as manufacturers, insurers, labor, conformity and trade associations that can build their participation cost into the price of the product or service they sell to the user-interest is condition is seen nearly everywhere in the global standards system As we explain in our ABOUT this condition is a wicked problem — a problem not unlike the problem of participatory democracy generally. While lack of participation may never go away entirely — despite clear, due diligence by accredited standards developers — Standards Michigan seeks to at least manage the weakness of the voice of technical and management experts in the ~$300 billion education facilities industry. To some degree, and in some cases, user-interest price signals are conveyed through trade associations.

We have resumed our regularly scheduled weekly open door teleconferences during which time we will review standards advocacy priorities — every Wednesday, 11:00 – 11:30 AM Eastern Time. Anyone is welcomed to join these teleconferences from your computer, tablet or smartphone with the login information below: